[Episode 161196] [Episode 161196]The three Tendou sisters stepped toward the goddess Althena and looked up and down the rows of the various races of Azeroth. This decision they had to make was not a simple one; whatever they chose, they would apparently have to live with it for some time. 60 years or so, Athena had said, though she implied that she might change her mind and modify their options later. Even if they were going to be doing this for many thousands of years, choosing again and again, 60 years was still a long time to live as something you hated.
Athena simply smiled at them as they drew close, and stretched her arms to indicated the choices that lay to each side, and waited.
Nabiki cleared her throat. "Well, what does everyone think? If we're all going to go together, we should choose a race we all find agreeable."
Kasumi drew her eyes along the line-up, beginning with the Horde side of orcs, trolls, tauren and the Forsaken undead. She had to admit those four looked very... interesting. Her gaze rested most briefly on the undead pair, before turning away. While their tragic story did arouse her sympathy, the idea of actually being a walking corpse herself was profoundly disturbing. The orcs and trolls were both rather... brutal and savage-looking, and not exactly pretty by conventional standards, what with the large tusks and fangs, though she admitted that the females of both species fell closer to what a human might consider attractive (in a sort of savage, primitive way) than the males. Her eyes rested longest on the tauren female, with her gentle (if cow-like) features and big, warm brown eyes... she looked rather cute in an animalistic way, actually, and what she recalled of Athena-sama's description of their culture and lifestyle seemed the sort of gentle philosophy she might enjoy being a part of. Of course, she would have to adjust to the idea of being so... well... big.
Upon glancing at her sisters however, Kasumi noticed that neither had spared the interesting Horde races more than a passing, dismissive glance. She sighed. Perhaps she could be the cute cow-lady in her next "life"?
Nabiki was considering the gnomes. While she wasn't sure she wanted to be that tiny, their emphasis on intellectual pursuits struck a cord within her. On the other hand, they were almost insufferably cute, and she doubted anyone would take her seriously if she looked like that. She glanced at the stout, robust dwarf woman, with her red hair curled into buns on either side of her head, and a cheery smile on her chubby cheeks, and didn't think that fit her well either. While she wasn't as vain about her looks as some other girls, she couldn't imagine volunteering to look like a peppy Scottish midget. Although the bustline was actually rather impressive for so short a stature, the size of the ass on that stubby woman wasn't something Nabiki wanted to look at in the mirror for a day, much less a lifetime. Also, strong and tough weren't her style at all. Human looked alright, quite attractive by all the standards Nabiki was used to, and she certainly wouldn't complain about looking like that (though the blonde hair and airhead expression had to go; thank goodness Athena had said they'd look as much like themselves as the racial archetype allowed.) The night elf woman was interesting on several levels, very tall, shapely, and elegant. Despite the fact that the faintly glowing eyes hid much, there was a mildly superior expression on the female's face Nabiki could see herself wearing. The purple skin and absurdly long ears were a little offbeat though.
Akane had not looked at the Horde races at all, nor gnomes or dwarves. The human female had gained only a half-second glance. Her eyes were absolutely riveted on the smirking, purple form of the night elven woman. Her eyes trailed from the long, luxuriant hair, the lovely face, the full breasts, the curvaceous hips, and the long, long legs down to the dainty feet... then back up to those breasts.
In actuality, the night elf's bosom was not overlarge proportionate to her height (though not exactly lacking either) but when that height stretched into the realm of seven feet... appropriately proportionate bust size on a female that big amounted to something only slightly smaller than Akane's own head. Speaking of that head, one single thought was circling around and around it as Akane gave the purple lady a look-over that (while motivated by envy, rather than lust) one might have expected from Happosai rather than Furinkan High's infamous pervert-basher. That thought was:
'Ranma will NEVER be able to make fun of me again!'
She spun to her sisters, both fists pulled up to her... ahem... 'modest' chest and turned the puppy-dog eyes on full force! "The night elves! Please? Oh please let's be night elves!"
Nabiki blinked at her younger sister's enthusiasm. Sure, she was considering being one herself, but was still weighing the benefits of choosing human and avoiding such ridiculous aspects as purple skin and foot-long ears, or being a girl as tall as a NBA star. She frowned and looked again at the night elf again, then glanced to how her sister seemed to be self-consciously covering her chest with her arms. She smirked and looked back to the purple lady with different measurements in mind. Oh yes, there was certainly something to be said for those kind of self-esteem boosts. Maybe being purple wouldn't be so bad?
She turned to her older sister. "I'd be fine with that. You Kasumi?"
The eldest Tendou sister looked the purple elf over for a moment and nodded. While perhaps not as 'cute' in the same way as the tauren lady, there was a certain elegance in her bearing that appealed to Kasumi. Purple skin and enormous pointed ears were interesting, to be sure... but not quite as interesting as that adorable tufted tail she'd seen swinging back and forth behind the cow-lady. Oh well. Staying together was most important, and Akane seemed to have her heart set on that particular archetype for some reason. Maybe she thought the added reach would help her martial arts? Kasumi was long used to putting her own desires second to the needs and wants of her little sisters, and she had no strong reasons to dislike this choice, personally, so she nodded her consent, smiling indulgently at their youngest sibling.
Akane grinned from ear to ear! "Athena-sama! We want to be night elves!"
The goddess smiled. "Not a bad choice at all, honestly. Night elves have several advantages. While not as strong as the dwarves, they are slightly more agile than the other races, making them better at dodging. They affinity for the night grants all night elves the special ability to fade into the shadows, becoming invisible to anyone who doesn't come to close. Their close bond with nature grants them a bit more resistance to nature-based magic and poisons. Finally, when they fall in battle, their spirits take on a special Wisp form, which allows them to return to their bodies more swiftly than one of another race in the same, unfortunate position, but I'll talk more on that subject a little later. For now, lets get you properly attired, shall we? Each of you, step through the image of the night elf woman from behind her."
Slightly confused, Akane hesitantly went first, circling around the seemingly solid purple lady (who she now realised had not taken a breath nor twitched an eyebrow the entire time, no matter how life-like she'd looked). Reaching up to touch the woman's back, Akane was still slightly surprised to see her fingers sink into the woman as if she wasn’t there at all. Having assured herself that she wasn't going to walk face first into a solid person and look extremely foolish, Akane stepped boldly into and through the woman's image, closing her eyes against a sudden flash of light. When she opened her eyes again, she looked down at her stunned sisters... way down.
Kasumi had been the tallest of the three sisters at 5'9". Now, that put her at about eye-level with Akane's sternum. Akane was filled with a sudden giddy impulse to hug her 'big' sister from behind, using Kasumi's head as a shelf to lay her now decidedly larger bust on. It was a childish, almost spiteful impulse, borne mostly from the fact that Akane had always known that Kasumi was the biggest of the three sisters in more ways than just her height. She brushed the thought away almost immediately (though it was still privately amusing).
"So," Akane grinned at their wide-eyed expressions, "how do I look, little sisters?"
"Haw haw." Nabiki smirked. "I'd lay good money we'll all be the same height in a minute, baby sister."
"Let's customise Akane-chan's appearance first, shall we?" Athena grinned. With a snap of her fingers, a full-length mirror (meaning about 8 feet, considering the subject it had to reflect) appeared in front of Akane. She eagerly looked at her image, seeing a face more-or-less the same as she remembered, save only for the skin tone and the extremely long ears arcing back behind her head. She did a little twirl, grinning all the while, then her giddy expression slipped a bit. "This hairdo looked cute on me before, but I don't think it works so well on this body."
Athena nodded. "My point exactly. Now then, you have a variety of options, both in style and colour. Have a look:" With a snap of her fingers, a long table of nearly a dozen heads appeared, all identical in face to the model night elf woman Akane had stepped through. Each head had a different hairstyle and bright hair colour that one wouldn't see on a human girl except at a punk rock concert, though the tendency was toward the 'cool' range of the colour spectrum. Each model face also had a pattern of dark tattoo markings, which the original model did not. The first head in the line was also an unmarked face. "Choose for yourself a combination of hairstyle, hair colour, and facial markings, if you would Akane-chan."
After some deliberation, Akane pointed to three heads in turn. "Could I see this hair, in this colour, and these markings?"
Athena nodded and snapped her fingers three times, and waved Akane back to the mirror. The youngest Tendou's hair was now in a long, unadorned style, hanging loosely down her back to the waist, with shorter locks from her temples that brushed her shoulders. The colour she'd chosen was a deep, midnight blue. As for the facial tattoos, a pair of dark red lines ran down each cheek, from the bridge of her nose to her jawbone, making her face somewhat resemble the bottom half of the Japanese battle flag. It gave her A very aggressive look.
"It looks very nice, Akane-chan." Kasumi smiled encouragingly.
"Yeah, kind of a throwback to your old style, except for the hair ribbon, of course." Nabiki added.
Akane just stuck out her tongue at her, and went back to enjoying her new look in the mirror.
Athena shook her head. "Well then, while she's enjoying her mirror, shall we get the two of you changed as well?" The older two girls nodded and stepped through the model night elf woman and set about choosing the rest of their appearance.
Kasumi went with a long silver braid (so bright and luminous that it would never be mistaken for a sign of old age) that hung over her right shoulder, reminiscent of how she wore her shorter ponytail in her last life. For her markings, she chose a lovely blue butterfly pattern that surrounded her now glowing silver eyes.
Nabiki selected the short-haired style which most resembled her own, but chose a dark emerald green for the colour. (Had Akane been an American, there might have been a crack about money-coloured hair. Since they were all Japanese --whose paper money came in many colours, depending on denomination, as was the case almost everywhere except the United States-- such a joke would have made no sense to anyone present. If anything, Nabiki had been thinking of the gemstone the colour was named for.) As for markings, none of the patterns (nature themes like butterflies and leaves, or else fierce slashes) particularly appealed to her, so she opted to take a 'plain'.
Akane looked over her two sister's new forms and found, as Nabiki had suspected, they were all exactly the same height, with the exact same measurements. In fact, there was arguably no difference at all between the three from the neckline down. They were even all wearing the same dress; the one which adorned the model night elf woman. Akane experienced a brief pang of disappointment that her reign as the tallest, bustiest, sexiest of the three sisters had been so short-lived, but at least now her sisters were no better or worse than she was. Oh well, either way, her current figure was a definite step up from her old one (and not just the extra nearly two feet in height) so she decided to be happy about it. Or try, at least.
Insecurity is a sad thing, isn't it folks?
"Well then, we're all huge, purple, and have ears that can pick up FM radio signals. What next?" Nabiki wryly asked the goddess.
"Next," Athena replied, "we talk classes. The five occupations available to all night elves are: Warrior, Druid, Rogue, Priest, and Hunter. So, how do you want to choose?"
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(Posted Thu, 20 Apr 2006 06:42)
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